New York Times hit with sexism accusations after obit of scientist Yvonne Brill leads with her cooking ability

President Obama awards the National Medal of Technology to Yvonne Brill of Skillman, N.J., in 2011 for her innovations in rocket propulsion systems. Brill died Wednesday at age 88. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Readers had plenty of beef with the New York Times after an obituary of rocket scientist Yvonne Brill came off sounding sexist, some of them said.

The backlash forced The Times to change the obit online Saturday and scrub a reference to Brill's cooking ability in the lead paragraph. It was replaced with her professional accomplishment as a "brilliant rocket scientist."

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The obit initially began: "She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children."

Her son, Matthew Brill, called her "the world's best mom."

Brill died Wednesday at the age of 88 in Princeton, N.J., after suffering complications from breast cancer.

The Canada native rose the ranks as a scientist in the 1940s during a time when women in the field were few.

During her storied career, she patented a propulsion system that would later be used for communications satellites. She was also honored by NASA, inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and presented with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama in 2011.

Those accomplishments weren't lost on Times readers and bloggers, who slammed the opening of Brill's obit.

The University of Manitoba in Canada had refused to let her study engineering because the school had no accomodations for women at its outdoor camp, she told the Star-Ledger (of Newark, N.J.) three years ago.

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But she wasn't deterred, majoring in math and chemistry instead.

"Nobody had the right degrees back then, so it didn't matter. I didn't have engineering, but the engineers didn't have the chemistry and math," she said. "We all learned together."

She moved to California for graduate work in the aerospace industry and later took a hiatus to raise a family. Her husband, William Franklin Brill, a research chemist, died in 2010.

Brill had told the Star-Ledger that she noticed a lack of kudos given to female scientists who were just as accomplished as their male counterparts.

"In order to get an honor, you have to be nominated," she said. "It rarely occurs to men to nominate women."